"Donald J. Trump has always been obsessed with television, particularly when the subject matter is Donald J. Trump. The President reportedly watches hours of cable news every day, and frequently complains about coverage in real time. Investigative reporting is bad enough; often what really infuriates him is jokes. Jokes aimed at him. Historically, autocrats are a mirthless bunch. Augustus, Napoleon Bonaparte, Tsar Nicholas I, Francisco Franco, and countless others--they all cracked down on satirists."
"A generation ago, Vladimir Putin, a former K.G.B. officer well practiced in the most punitive forms of cancel culture, launched his assault on the Russia media by going after "Kukly," a weekly satirical puppet show on the network NTV that fearlessly mocked public officials, including him. "Kukly" was eliminated, and Putin went about dismantling the editorial staff of the network. By the time Putin invaded Ukraine, he had set about destroying the remaining vestiges of an independent press;"
"This week, Trump and his loyalists brought down the hammer of censorship on Jimmy Kimmel--the latest step in an ever-widening effort to stifle criticism, reporting, and, well, jokes. Earlier in the week, Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, issued a fairly unambiguous threat aimed at ABC and its parent company, Disney, over a recent monologue by Kimmel about the aftermath of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, calling it "some of the sickest conduct possible.""
Donald J. Trump is intensely focused on television and monitors cable news for coverage and jokes about himself, reacting angrily to satire. Autocrats historically suppress satirists and dissent. Vladimir Putin eliminated the satirical show "Kukly," dismantled NTV's editorial staff, and steadily destroyed independent media ahead of the Ukraine war. Trump and allies targeted Jimmy Kimmel, framing his monologue about the aftermath of Charlie Kirk's assassination as unacceptable. FCC chair Brendan Carr publicly threatened ABC and Disney, calling the monologue "some of the sickest conduct possible" and signaling regulatory pressure against networks.
Read at The New Yorker
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